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четверг, 23 октября 2014 г.

Al-Qaeda Declares War on China, Too

By Zachary Keck

Al-Qaeda has joined the Islamic
State in calling for jihad against China for its Uyghur policies.

Al-Qaeda central appears to
have joined the Islamic State in calling for jihad against China over its
alleged occupation of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

This week, al-Sahab media
organization, al-Qaeda’s propaganda arm, released the first issue of its new
English-language magazine Resurgence. The magazine has a strong focus on the
Asia-Pacific in general, with feature articles on both India and Bangladesh, as
well as others on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, the first issue also
contains an article entitled “10 Facts About East Turkistan,” which refers to
the name given to Xinjiang by those who favor independence from China. The ten
facts seek to cast Xinjiang as a longtime independent state that has only
recently been brutally colonized by Han Chinese, who are determined to
obliterate its Islamic heritage.

“In the last 1,000 years of its
Islamic history,” the article says, Xinjiang “has remained independent for 763
years, while 237 years have been spent under Chinese occupation at various
intervals.”

This occupation has been
costly, the article argues, alleging that: “In 1949, 93 percent of the
population of East Turkistan was Uyghur, while 7 percent was Chinese. Today, as
a result of six decades of forced displacement of the native population and the
settlement of Han Chinese in their place, almost 45 percent of the population
of East Turkistan is Chinese.”

The article goes on to claim
that teaching the Quran in Xinjiang is punishable by up to ten years in prison,
and that Muslim women caught wearing the hijab can be fined more than five
times the average annual income of the area. Al-Qaeda also claims that
following its takeover of the mainland in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party
murdered some 4.5 million Muslims in Xinjiang. The group further claims that
China has conducted no less than 35 nuclear weapon tests in Xinjiang, and the
radioactive fallout from these are estimated to have killed 200,000 Muslims. In
1998 alone, the article adds, 20,000 babies were born deformed in Xinjiang as a
result of these nuclear tests.

Although “10 Facts About East
Turkistan” stops shorting of calling for jihad against China, the point is more
directly articulated elsewhere in the first issue of Resurgence. For example,
one article says that the “the victory of the Ummah” will be a “deathblow” and
a “bitter defeat… for America, Iran, Russia, China and all those who have
fought this war by proxy against Muslims.” In a particularly troubling article
for China and other state actors, al-Qaeda calls on its followers to try to
disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and Strait of Malacca, noting the
waterways’ centrality for China and other Asian economies in particular.

Al-Qaeda central’s sudden focus
on China follows closely on the heels of the Islamic State also condemning
Beijing for its handling of its Uyghur Muslim population. Back in July, IS
leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi gave a speech in which he argued “Muslim rights are
forcibly seized in China, India, Palestine” and many other countries around the
world. Later, IS released a map that outlined the borders of its envisioned
Caliphate. Notably, Xinjiang province was included in the Caliphate.

Chinese officials and local
authorities have also noted an uptick in the number of Chinese nationals
traveling to the Middle East to fight or train alongside militant groups in the
region. The last year has also seen a sharp uptick in the frequency and
sophistication of domestic terrorist attacks inside China, which the government
blames on disgruntled Uyghurs.

Resurgence’s focus on China
also follows al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri recently establishing a South
Asia branch to try and extend the group’s operations to the Indian continent.
The move was largely seen as an attempt to compete with the Islamic State for
the leadership of the jihadist world.

The same competition almost
certainly motivated al-Qaeda central to publish the English-language magazine
as well. The al-Sahab media organization has been active since around 2001 —
although its activities have rapidly diminished over the last few years — but
this is the first time that it or al-Qaeda central has published an
English-language magazine. However, the terrorist group’s Yemen-based branch,
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has long published an English
language magazine called Inspire, which Resurgence is modeled on.

Inspire was best known for
trying to motivate potential lone wolf terrorists in Western countries in the
United States and Europe. Resurgence at times seems to try to emulate this
approach, only with an eye toward populations mostly outside the Western world.

That al-Qaeda is attempting to
use an English-language publication to motivate would-be jihadists in places
like Xinjiang displays a remarkable degree of desperation, incompetence or
both, none of which bodes well for the group’s longevity. Terrorist groups have
a history of failing under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri, and al-Qaeda
central increasingly appears destined to suffer the same fate.

Facts from History

CEDAW

UNSCR 1325

Strategy for engagement and joint actions on confidence building and P2P diplomacy that involve women. Final Report

YOUTH PEACE PLAN OF GEORGIA

This publication is produced within the framework of the project - ‘‘Support Democratic Participation of Young Women in Building Peace and Stability in Georgia’’ implemented in Georgia by International Network for Civil Development - INCD in partnership with Young Women Experts’ Network for Peace and Security (YWEPS) and with the financial support of the Embassy of Canada through Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).